In American tradition a certain kind of, I would say, desperate American friendliness in which the poet tries to reach out through the page to make a connection by the side of the road with some other person.

There's always some place to go. You don't need workshops, you don't need friends necessarily, you can be befriended by literature itself.

I think the culture can absorb so many people writing poetry and trying to earn their living in poetry.

But, the best times I have found, in my life, are late at night or early in the morning and I think it's because you're outside the social realm.

Poetry connects us to what is deepest in ourselves. It gives us access to our own feelings, which are often shadowy, and engages us in the art of making meaning. It widens the space of our inner lives. It is a magical, mysterious, inexplicable (though not incomprehensible) event in language.

We're trying to make something that lasts in language and there's no question that many fiction writers began as poets and it's hard for me to think of any good fiction writers who don't also read poetry.

A stress on the system and I think a painful thing for many young poets who are looking to find a life in poetry that they're not going to be able to find.